Budget setback stymies Calif. governor's agenda

by James Nash - Apr. 3, 2011 12:00 AMBloomberg News

SACRAMENTO - Jerry Brown, who reinvented himself from California's "Governor Moonbeam" of the 1970s into an elder pragmatist, faces one of the toughest tests of his career after Republican lawmakers blocked his deficit-cutting budget plan.

Brown, elected to a third term with 54 percent of the vote, won't be able to move forward on the rest of his agenda for governing the most populous state until he bridges the $15.4 billion spending gap, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California.

Brown, a 72-year-old Democrat, conceded Tuesday that the cornerstone of his plan to balance the budget, asking voters to extend $9.3 billion in higher taxes and fees in a June ballot, was hopelessly blocked by Republican legislators.

"I don't think he's going to move on any other part of his agenda until after the budget is resolved," Jeffe said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "If you go back on his campaign, the major focus was on solving the budget deficit. There weren't really any other detailed items."

As a candidate last year, Brown cited his experience as governor from 1975 to 1983, as mayor of Oakland and as attorney general as evidence of his ability to govern.

"I have a deep knowledge about how government functions and how politicians operate," he wrote in a budget document on his campaign website. "I have seen it as a governor, as a mayor, and as attorney general. I know how to get budgets done - balanced and on time."

During his first stint as governor, Brown was tagged with the "Moonbeam" sobriquet for promoting a state-sponsored space program. He ran for the Democratic nomination for president three times, never winning.

Last year, Brown defeated Republican Meg Whitman, a billionaire and former chief executive officer of eBay, by 13 percentage points. California was one of only five states to replace Republican leaders with Democrats in 2010.

To put the tax issue to a referendum in June, Brown needed approval of two-thirds of the Legislature. That meant he had to persuade at least four Republican lawmakers to go along with Democrats, who hold a simple majority. The constitutional deadline for passage of a budget is June 15.

If approved in the special election, Brown would have been allowed to incorporate the $9.3 billion into his proposed $84.6 billion budget for the year beginning July 1, without additional cuts to education and public safety.

Brown hasn't signaled his next move. He could still seek a June election by reworking his proposal to require only a majority vote to pass the Legislature. Such a move would face a court challenge from Republicans, who say the tactic would be illegal. He could also pursue a citizen initiative to put the issue on the November ballot.

Without the tax revenue, Brown has said he would balance the budget through larger cuts to education, health care and other state services.

"I'm going to find a way to get our budget balanced," Brown said in a video address posted Tuesday on YouTube.

A statewide poll of likely voters released March 23 showed Brown's popularity declining along with support for a June ballot measure.

Brown's approval rating dropped to 41 percent from 47 percent in January, according to the survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. In contrast, the Legislature's approval was 16 percent, down 2 percentage points.

Support for the idea of a June ballot measure on taxes fell to 46 percent from 54 percent, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.